As the 2009/2010 season approaches it appears as if the American Hockey League is finally represented within the Twitter universe.

Twitter is a great service for sports fans due to the fact that news can usually be summed up in less than 140 characters leaving out all of the extra fluff that accompanies articles.

If you’re new to Twitter I’m going to list some ways to effectively use the site and follow teams, if you’re just looking for the list of teams scroll down.

By following LetsGoAmerks (and other teams) on Twitter you’ll be able to get live updates about the Rochester Americans with scores, injuries, transactions (call ups and players being signed), game day lineups, media appearances, and much more. If you scan through the updates I’ve posted I think you’ll notice it’s a all great info. Also taking a moment to brag, LetsGoAmerks offers the best coverage of any AHL team on Twitter.

Bookmarks

The old fashioned way of bookmarking web sites is still the easiest for a lot of people. Simply save your favorite teams page as a bookmark and refresh it whenever you want to check for updates, no need to sign up for an account!

RSS Feeds

Every account has an RSS feed that you can stay subscribed to in your news reader. Example: I have a folder in Google Reader that has all of the teams.

SMS / Device Updates

One of the greatest features I find on Twitter are the “device updates.” What are device updates? When a new tweet is posted it gets sent to my phone as a text message. Once you’re following a lot of people you can miss some things, getting updates sent as SMS is a great way to not miss a beat. A lot of Twitter accounts are used for the purpose of announcements and do not post a lot of updates so the few text messages a week or half a dozen on a game night are easy to handle.

Once you create your account you’ll have to click on settings and then device to add your phone number, no one else can see your phone number.

After you click on FOLLOW you’ll see this box appear at which time you can click on Device Updates

You can then click ON to start receiving SMS updates. If you ever want to turn them OFF just return to the page and click OFF

Tweetdeck is a desktop application where you can create groups to have updates just from specific people. it’s probably the most popular desktop app for using the Twitter service.

Ubertwitter

If you have a Blackberry you’ll want to download Ubertwitter, it’s the best Twitter BB app. From your BB browser just go to www.ubertwitter.com to download.

http://www.twitterforbusypeople.com/ – see updates from accounts that have updated recently. You can miss a lot once you get active on the site, I often use this site first when sitting down at the computer.

The only two teams team I have not found on Twitter is are the Norfolk Admirals and Providence Bruins. If they exist, please leave a comment with the links!